The second review from the KOTC Of The Day series.
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1) JESSE LESSARD vs. DONNIE WALKER: Walker is from Jason Dent’s camp. Lessard represents JEET KUN DO and is 0-1 in MMA, having lost in a nondescript KOTC bout the last time they were in Edmonton (which I think is on another boxed set and has Brendan Seguin/Joe Doerkson as the main event or something).
Anyhow, Walker’s wins are all by submission, and I bet you can guess how this goes. Almost immediate takedown, Walker on top, guard pass, full mount, punches and elbows like WHAT, traps the left arm with the knee, and then takes the outstretched right arm for the armbar and a now bloody and regretful Lessard begs for mercy. We are all richer for it.
2) DAVID RODRIGUE vs. DEMARQUES JOHNSON: Massacre coming. Rodrique looks 45 and claims to be a disciple of JKD going on 14 years. Johnson trains with a real camp being trained and managed by Jeremy Horn, drops a bunch of names of dudes who beat him up, and its great. RAMPAGE is guesting on the announce team. I am so amped up. Rampage remarks that he thinks Bruce Lee would have done well in the cage. Luckily, no one saw this, and so there were no threads started as a result. Jeremy Horn is also briefly interviewed and says he has 10-15 years left of fighting. Whaaaa? I love Mike Naimark, but when he says that MMA fighters will never suffer the kind of encephalopathy that boxers have, I disagree to a point. The comparative safety of the sport will keep a lot of men fighting longer than they should, and punches in sparring may be lighter (16oz + headgear, after all), but still fuck up the head plenty. Keep doing it ‘till you’re fifty and shit is going down. Especially the Shooto guys. They have standing 8s!
The fight is similar to the one prior. Johnson gets the clinch, does some judo throw that probably has “ishii” and “gata” in the name and then beats the unholy shit out of him until Rodrigue verbally quits. “Would Bruce Lee turn his back like that?,” asks a philisophical Rampage Jackson. We may never know, Quinton. It will be the thing 1,000,000 posts on Sherdog are made of.
3) CHRIS PEAK vs. RON FIELDS: Before the fight starts, Joe Doerkson stops in to say hello. Joe reminds me of this chick that was pretty cool in high school, but had that same sorta scar on her lip, perhaps exascerbated. She got no love. Real shame and shit. Fields sucks, and I know nothing about Peak (other than his record blows), but they get pyro for some reason. I bet they throw shitty punches and shittier kicks!
This fight contains a few minutes of each man pawing the air before Peak shoots in and gets the takedown. Fields and Peak roll on the ground in a fashion that channels the magic ubershittiness of Laughing/Moskowitz in each other’s side control before Fields thinks it’s a good idea to shove his arm between Peak’s legs and trap himself. 30 seconds of hammerfists and elbows later, the ref pulls Peak off the defenseless Fields.
4) KEVIN MANDERSON vs. MIKE JERACE: Manderson is apparently a fighter trained by Doerkson, and Jerace is an ex-boxer (Boxrec shows him as 1-1 now, with his win in 1995 and his loss in 2006). Jerace was also responsible for the sole loss on Jesse Lessard’s ledger. Manderson is a former Canadian champion in Greco Roman or something and he doesn’t like to strike. He’s also way uncomfortable in prefight interview segments.
Here's another classic, as its the 3rd obvious lousy striker/good grappler bout. Manderson takes him down with a slam, then Jerace is actually able to recover and get up….only to suffer a pro wrestling style belly to back side suplex from Manderson. He prevents Manderson from instantly mounting after that, but gets pushed into the cage and beat up with elbows till Herb Dean steps in.
5) JIMMY BOYD vs. JOSH KYREJTO: Kyrejto is a former college football player in Canada and is a primary standup guy. Boyd trains out of Muncie and is primarily a wrestling. Boyd has several pro fights. Josh none. WHAT WILL HAPPEN.
If you're thinking, “Kyrejto gets taken down and figuratively raped”, you are pretty much on the money. The ex football player is able to tie up enough to make it through round 1 by getting stood up, taken down on multiple occasions, but a slam at the start of Round 2 and the subsequent beating ends it early there. Who says clash of styles is dead?
6) MAC DANZIG vs. FRANK KIRMSE: More pyro during the ring walks. Kirmse is a dude who has fought a bunch and isn’t all that good. Something tells me that you may be familiar with this Mac Danzig fellow. Jeremy Horn appears from the ether to co-announce.
Fight starts with Kirmse faking a front kick and Danzig, probably half in astonishment that someone would feint with THAT, throws a head kick that lands square, dropping Kirmse to a knee. Clinch up. As Roufus calls Horn “Gumby” and gets an audible groan, Danzig trips Kirmse and gets into side control. From there, its knee ride-mount-punches-Kirmse gives his back, more strikes, RNC, and Mac Danzig gets another easy paycheck. Dick Roufus goes, “That’s my favorite move in jiujitsu. I learned it first. Its great.” He followed this in depth analysis with a soliloquy about Spot and his travels.
7) “SLICK” RICK MCCORKELL vs. BILLY “THE” KIDD: Billy Kidd likes Chuck Liddell. That means he’ll probably lose. Rick McCorkell is trained by Alessio and Danzig. Dick Roufus loves wordplay about dudes being muscular also. “You need a bandaid, ‘cause this dude is cut!” Kidd is trained in Muncie at Team Wolfpack and has a superior record. They are both bantamweights and not named Beebe so no one knows who they are.
McCorkell shoots in with the takedown, gets it, Kidd scrambles back to his feet, McCorkell gets him down again, takes the back, rides him for a little while and then gets the choke. If this was my first MMA show, I’d have given up on the sport immediately. I mean, every single match is “dude gets takedown, other guy is inept, fight ends soon after”. Not only that, they throw the shitty locals in with like, good fighters rather than each other. Way to burn the town, guys.
8) DAVID MAH vs. KYLE CHEYNE: Mah did some kung fu when he was younger. Mah is apparently a grappler and Cheyne likes to stand. Another one? ANOTHER? Mah comes out dressed as Great Muta. Cheyne is 18 years old. He also outweighs Mah by 20 lbs (185lbs-166lbs). Rampage is interviewed again. He likes Edmonton because dudes say “eh”. He also says he wants to fight a couple more years and then act.
Guess what happens? Brief standup exchange, Mah takes down Cheyne, gets side control pounds on him, gets full mount, more pounding, Cheyne flips on his belly and gets choked out. Ranallo brings up Ultimo Dragon during the replays, because a dude really beating the dog shit out of another dude really makes me think of lucha trained japanese guys.
Oooh! A Terry Trebelcock interview! Just what we need now. He’s going to run Canada 40-50 times in the next 5 years so he says.
9) BRANDON GARNER vs. JASON DENT: Jason Dent is now a UFC vet well after this fight and already back on the club shows. Garner will probably get a contract from someone eventually if he’s still active.
Slight variation on the usual fomula for the night. Longer standup section where no one does anything. Garner shoots in, pulls guard, Dent follows him in with Garner using the butterfly guard and then transitioning to an open guard. Dent moves up to throw punches, gets caught in a triangle choke, elevates Garner in an attempt to escape and puts him against the fence, but Garner holds on and gets the win by tapout.
10) ELMER WHERHEN vs. MIKE NEWTON: Newton claims japanese shootwrestling, BJJ, and kickboxing. Uh-huh. The other dude is named Elmer. Who the fuck is named Elmer? I guess this dude and people who end up in my place of work with acute respiratory failure and a birthdate prior to 1930.
Brief standup battle ends with Elmer landing on Newton and Newton goes down. Then he starts the GNP and OH GOD huge hammerfist from the ceiling ends it all. I have a feeling there was no tear filled interview with Inoki afterwards where he expressed his sadness at the failure of pro wrestling.
11) JOHN ALESSIO vs. SAVANT YOUNG: I’m familiar with Young from his time in IFL, and he was pretty good, but this is two years before, so who knows what he’s like. BUT BEFORE THAT: JOHN ALESSIO vs. RONALD JHUN HIGHLIGHTS. And what an exciting package it is. I’m scared to ask…how was the UCC 12 bout with Jason Black?
I guess I should talk about this fight now. Jeremy Horn is back behind the desk. Dull as dishwater first round that is all standup. Alessio lands a nice knee and some okay jabs, Savant Young throws a bunch of low kicks and nothing else lands, much less lands effectively. Round 2 sees Young come out with a lot of punches, generally with a double jab followed by a straight right, and Alessio responds by getting the takedown and controlling Young. He almost subs Young at the end of the round, but in Round 3 he forces Young to pull guard almost immediately, beats him up, takes mount, forces Savant Young to give up his back and…well…guess.
FIGHT OF THE NIGHT(S): Alessio/Young. Rarely does John Alessio get such honors, but that is the case here in the sole actually competitive bout.
KO OF THE NIGHT(S): Boyd/Kyrejto. That dude's last name was tough and so I was glad he got rolled. Plus he wasn't old like most of the other guys who got KOed.
SUBMISSTION OF THE NIGHT(S): Dent/Garner. Most challenging one to get of the submissions, and the best attempt to get out of it. Plus Dent is a pretty good midlevel talent these days.
OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 5 out of 10: From the perspective of it being a King Of The Cage show, maybe a 7, but I'm ranking it as an event independent of its origin. Most of these points go to Rampage's camera time and the decent production of the show.
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POSTSCRIPT:
-Mac Danzig still fights for the UFC
-John Alessio is the odds on favorite to win the United Glory Welterweight tourney.
-Savant Young apparent retired after losing to Mark Hominick in Affliction's debut.
-DaMarques Johnson was a TUF 9 finalist and is still with the UFC as a prelim fighter.
-Donny Walker is now the NAAFS Featherweight Champion and his defense of the belt in his last fight (12/4/10) was recently reviewed here.
-Jason Dent went on TUF 9, did OK, eventually was re-released by the UFC and was seen taking a massive beating at the hands of Chris Lozano in NAAFS last year.
-Brandon Garner has been very inactive, notably picking up a draw when competing at HERO'S KAZAKHSTAN.
-Ron Fields retired in 2008 after a recorded 56 pro MMA bouts.
-Mike Jerace, like lots of broke old fighters, can't fully stop fighting. He again competed for KOTC in what was his 3rd pro MMA bout in may of 2010 after a 3 1/2 year layoff from the sport.
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